Caller treatment in a SIP network

Abstract

In a SIP network, SIP servers are provisioned with information used to authenticate subscribers and entities that will be placing calls. This information can be used during call establishment to allow or deny calls, as well as to determine the appropriate party to bill if the call involves a charge, such as a long distance charge. In addition to allowing calls between authenticated and trusted entities, there is a need for the SIP server to allow certain kinds of calls that involve non-trusted users or entities. If non-trusted entities where not recognized, trusted users and entities within the SIP network would not be able to receive calls from users or entities not know to the SIP server that is providing them services.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION DATA[0001]This application claims the benefit of and priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 60 / 276,923, 60 / 276,953, 60 / 276,954, and 60 / 276,955, all filed Mar. 20, 2001, and all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention general relates to communication services, and more particularly, to the handling of a caller in a SIP network.[0004]2. Description of Related Art[0005]The proliferation of data transport networks, and most notably the Internet, is revolutionizing telephony and other forms of real-time communications. Businesses that have become accustomed to having telephony traffic and data traffic separately supported over different systems and networks are now moving toward a converged network where telephone voice traffic and other forms of real-time media are converted into digital form and carried by a packet data network...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a method for authenticating and treating users in a SIP network. The SIP server needs to be able to distinguish between trusted and non-trusted callers. Non-trusted callers can be treated as non-trusted callers, and the SIP server can execute different call processing logic for calls involving authenticated and non-trusted users. The authentication process involves exchanging information about the user's name and password in a secure fashion. The SIP server needs to know whether it serves the user before it sends a challenge requesting authentication information. The invention also relates to the routing and billing of non-trusted callers in a SIP network.

Problems solved by technology

Even before such devices were deployed, computers equipped with audio adapters and connected to the Internet were able to conduct some rudimentary forms of Internet telephony, although the quality was unpredictable and often very poor.

With existing systems, users often forget which combination of keystrokes are required to evoke the enhanced features.

However, the implementation of these applications is complicated by the practices of participants, e.g., the participants may move between physical locations, the participants may be addressable by a plurality of identifiers, and the participants may communicate using several types of communications media, sometimes in parallel.

If non-trusted entities were not recognized, trusted users and entities within a SIP network would not be able to receive calls from users or entities not known to the SIP server that is providing them services.

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